Irish Examiner view: Dabbling into other people’s souls
The Princess of Wales announcing that following her abdominal surgery in January 'tests after the operation found cancer had been present.'
There is no more certain indication that time is out of joint than when Donald Trump, former US president and highly likely to be the next occupant of the Oval Office at the end of the year, starts to sound like a reasonable man.
What’s the big deal, he asked, about a photograph being retouched?
He’s no stranger to the process himself. “Everybody doctors” he said.
He looked at it, and it was “very minor.”
“I don’t understand why there could be such a howl over that.”
Of course, we know the truth now about Kate Middleton, princess of Wales. She has cancer.
Her abdominal surgery was serious and requires a prolonged period of recuperation.
Her retinue and professional advisers are accused of leaving her to cope with the madness, not too strong a word, which passes as discourse on social media.
In short, according to experts, consultants, and barrack-room lawyers the monarchy, poor things, don’t “get” the internet.
Not that there is much to get.
Attempts to find rational responses to the tsunami of rumour, lies, opinions, self-aggrandising theories, putrid “humour” and bile which course through these networks every day is like trying to take a drink from a firehose.
The Kate Middleton story illustrates the frighteningly tenuous human grasp on reality and the accelerating decline in standards of common decency.
They show, also, how willingly many people are enticed into the mazes of speculation and fantasy.
The accelerant in all this was provided by photo agencies issuing “kill” notices for a photograph taken by the Prince of Wales.
They had noticed an "inconsistency in alignment of Princess Charlotte's left hand."
The picture agencies did not suggest that the entire picture was a fake, or that Kate Middleton is much more unwell than she appeared but their intervention left room for speculation and generated windbaggery from royal “experts” blathering on about a “lack of trust.”
Image manipulation has been taking place since photography moved into the mass market in the late 19th century and the phrase — coined by sales people — that a “picture is worth a thousand words” came into general use.
Sometimes the “truth” has been deliberately omitted from an image.
Few pictures exist from the 30s showing the disabled president Franklin Roosevelt in his wheelchair.
On other occasions matters have been restaged.
The famous “Falling Soldier” picture from Robert Capa’s Spanish Civil War portfolio is held to be a reconstruction.
The Stars and Stripes hoisted over Iwo Jima was the second flag raising of the day.
These are historical documents to which no “kill notices” have been attached.
There is acute anxiety about Artificial Intelligence and deep fake imagery, and the agencies may have been determined to make a point about provenance.
There were plenty of social media sleuths who had done their work for them, before the ‘kill’ notices were issued, and all enabled the swathes of online trolls to rear their — often anonymous — heads.
What about all of us — media, digital heads, keyboard warriors, fantasists, everyone who wants to give their “hot take”?
There have been more than a few pangs of shame from those who dabbled in mischief-making or worse.
Many people are making strenuous efforts to distance themselves now. More will do so.
It was 30 years ago at the height of the intrusion that would eventually lead to the death of the previous Princess of Wales in a Paris underpass that Britain’s press regulator warned of the dangers of journalists “dabbling their fingers in the stuff of other people’s souls.”
Since then, with the ubiquity of phone cameras and the internet, we have become an even more intrusive society, one in which people may sometimes think twice about posting pictures of their own relatives online, but seek no permission at all to exploit the images of others.
In this circumstance, the fervour around Kate’s ‘disappearance’ was led by ordinary citizens on social media, as much as the media.
We are all paparazzi now, in instinct if not in practice.
If our increasing descent into the rabbit holes of antisocial media is one worry for our future, what can we make of the latest figures showing that more than 2,500 nurses were attacked physically or verbally in hospitals across the republic in the first nine months of last year?
Figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), show nurses bear the brunt of aggression from members of public.
Of 4,382 health staff assaulted in the workplace between January and September, 2,553 were nurses, an average of more than 65 per week.
Other victims were porters, and health workers, doctors and consultants.
The INMO says many assaults go unreported.
This level of barely subdued rage within society is directed at the very people who are trying to help us.
The INMO reports that its members are even experiencing an increase in assaults in paediatric and maternity hospitals.
Clearly this cannot continue. Hard-pressed hospitals will have to budget more for security.
With hindsight, Simon Harris may regard his ascendancy to become the new leader of Fine Gael, the party’s third in 22 years, and the path to the Taoiseach’s office as the easiest part of the job.
In committing to policies of enterprise, opportunity, integrity and security, Mr Harris will know that housing, health, immigration, and the ability to take on Sinn Féin in these areas, will define the first stage of his leadership.
The Taoiseach-in-waiting paid tribute to his wife Caoimhe and children Saoirse and Cillian yesterday, as well as his parents who “gave up so much and worked so hard” to provide.
“I appreciate that I am a very lucky man in every way,” he said.
He will require a great deal more than luck to improve Fine Gael’s prospects in upcoming elections.
There’s a large in-tray waiting.
The problems of the world are increasing and unresolved. He will need to hit the ground running.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
